Hair rose along my arms as I laid in the darkened tent, forcing myself to breathe and remain calm. I’d woken to movement in my sleeping bag, and terrified to move, I couldn’t even nudge Jack for help. Overwhelmed by the need to scream, icy dread ran down my spine, breaths coming in small gasps as something brushed against my legs. Tourists’ concern about wildlife in Australia no longer seemed amusing, and I whimpered. Jack woke and turned a flashlight…
Nancy rubbed baby oil into her bronzed skin and reclined on a towel. The air was alive with screeching gulls, mingled with laughter from children on school holidays paddling in the sea. A shadow blocked the sun, and she peered over plastic sunnies at a constable. His blue woolen jacket looked stifling in the blistering January heat. He produced a photograph, its edges bent, of three smiling children. “Seen them?” “No.” He trudged on, and Nancy scurried to join the…
It started that lonely, dark night when Eunice showed up with a deck of Uno cards, shuffling them like a professional. We were all transfixed by the movement as she dealt everyone a hand. Later, drunk with happiness and stuffed with popcorn, Margret won. We demanded a rematch, and that’s why, years later, we still meet, hoping to beat her. Paula came close once, Eunice, too. This time, it’s between myself and Margret. I slap a yellow four down. She…
The parking lot was empty when I arrived, its single light flickering in the inky darkness. Windshield fogging, I wipe it clean with the cuff of my hoodie, and kept driving to row 10. The instructions were explicit, and I followed them. Desperate, I ignored everyone’s warnings and now, here I am, in the middle of a deserted parking lot in the dead of night, freezing while I wait. Headlights blind me as they drive up. Windows down, breath ballooning…